A late summer sojourn in the always sparkling mountain and lake country of the Salzkammergut yielded some good research material for our journalism project on climate change in the Alps and we had the opportunity to spend a night atop the Krippenstein, at an elevation of about 2,000 meters. One of the old alpine huts near the summit has been converted into a snazzy alpine lodge, The Lodge at Krippenstein, and there’s even a Colorado connection — seems Chris Davenport enjoyed a good ski session here a few years ago, and it turns out that Warren Miller has also filmed short segment in the area. The lodge is also operated as a climate friendly green business, and has won awards for its sustainable practices, and it is, of course, a great base camp for exploring this wonderful slice of the Alps.

All the pictures except one show lakes of the region, intricately tied to the Hallstattt Glacier in the upper right, which feeds the system, in turn a major headwaters tributary to the mighty Danube. The country’s glaciers are shriveling at an accelerated rate, as are it’s lakes, heating up at twice the global average. Earlier spring melt and longer, hotter summers have warmed streams, and larger rivers, even more, leading to increased fish disease and blooms of algae. Similar issues have been documented around the Alps and worldwide as clear global warming impacts. Learn more here.

A few days in the Salzkammergut, in search of cheese produced on juicy alpine pastures, yielded this set of shots, showing that cloudy days are good days for mountain photography — as long as you can keep your camera dry. Visit our online gallery for more landscape and nature photography, where you can buy prints, postcards and more, all while supporting independent environmental journalism. More info on climate change in the Austrian mountains at our Global Warming in the Alps blog.

So many moods in the deep blue sea, changing from day to day, and even from hour to hour. This set features shots from a jaunt along the Mediterranean coast of Italy and France, including a few moon rise time exposures. The cove image from the French island of Port Cros, a national park off the coast of Hyères. The moonrise shots are near Cap Corsaire.

Dusting off a few more from the Summit Voice archives for a Sunday set highlighting some of the things I love most: snow and trees. From aspens in the Williams Fork Range to the red rocks of Glenwood Springs Canyon, there’s incomparable beauty in the hills of Colorado, and nothing like a little snow to make it all shine!

A popular local swimming hole along the Danube River in the town of Greifenstein, near Vienna.

An arch iceberg in the Antarctic Sound.

The more I report on climate change and the environment, the more I learn to cherish the landscapes that I see, because it’s really starting to sink in that humankind, during this Anthropocene Age, is fundamentally changing Earth’s ecosystems, altering the climate and impacting the landscape on levels seem almost inconceivable.

Nothing says summer like big thunderboomers building up, unless maybe it’s a tall glass of raspberry mint lemonade or a field of brilliant red poppies. For the Sunday set we compiled a few images from the past week with a focus on bright summer colors. The solstice is right around the corner so get out and enjoy those long days!

Since everybody on the subway in Vienna stares into their “Handy” pretty much the entire time they’re on board a train, I thought I would do the same during a recent jaunt to Heiligenstadt. But rather than texting or checking email, I played with a couple of photo apps to put together this short plant-oriented set. The three edited shots are from Vienna, including the great, green chestnut leaves; the other two pics are from a slot canyon in southern Austria, the Heiligengeistklamm, so I could’ve called this set from the holy gorge to the holy city. What can I say — it’s a Catholic country.